Those of us born after, say, 1950, probably aren’t terribly familiar with pulp magazines. But most anybody reading one today might get a jolt of déjà vu nonetheless.
From the 1920s through the ’40s, pulps like Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, and Black Mask were the nation’s primary outlet for short fiction – mysteries, Westerns, science fiction, and fantasy. The magazines were printed on cheap paper (“pulp”) and sold for 10, 15 or 20 cents each. But while they were often considered low-brow entertainment, they provided outlets for many influential writers and set the tone for decades of popular culture to come.
With characters like Doc Savage, Tarzan, The Shadow, Buck Rogers, and detective Sam Spade, the pulps pioneered modern detective fiction and foreshadowed everything from “Star Wars” to superhero comics and the now-ubiquitous movies based on them.
“If Stephen King were writing say in the 1930s, he would have been published in a pulp magazine,” said Mike Chomko, a co-organizer of this week’s PulpFest 50. The four-day event, at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel, in Cranberry, marks a half-century of conventions celebrating classic pulp magazines.
PulpFest is the successor to Pulpcon, considered the first pulp-fiction convention, which debuted in 1972, in St. Louis. After it folded, PulpFest was launched in 2009, in Dayton, Ohio; it relocated to the Pittsburgh area in 2016.
This year’s convention will feature speakers; panel discussions about the pulps’ literary value as well as their famously eye-catching cover art; and about 70 dealers of everything from collectibles to new pulp-inspired books. And while much of the attraction is for folks who appreciate the pulps for their own merits, the convention does nod to the magazines’ formative influence.
“We do kind of salute them by pointing out how what people read today and actually watch on television and movies, a lot of it was inspired by the pulps,” said Chomko, who lives in Allentown, Pa. “It’s where American detective fiction and science fiction and other popular types of fiction developed.”
With their two-fisted heroes, the pulps were pretty dude-centric; those lurid covers often featured scantily-clad women (and the occasional femme fatale). Still, characters like the crime-fighter Doc Savage and the better-known Shadow are acknowledged precursors of even the earliest major comic-book superheroes, including Superman and Batman. Outer-space adventurer Buck Rogers – who originated in the pulps before rising to fame in the funny papers – was among the influences that led George Lucas to create “Star Wars.”
Other characters born on pulp include Tarzan, Zorro, Conan the Barbarian, Cthulhu, Hopalong Cassidy, and John Carter of Mars.
Famed science-fiction writers Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert Heinlein all got their starts writing for the pulps. Dashiell Hammett wrote for the pulps, and introduced Sam Spade in a five-part Black Mask serial titled “The Maltese Falcon.” Detective-fiction giants Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain also got their starts in pulp magazines.
Pulps mostly stopped publishing by around 1950, driven out by television and other cultural changes. But that wasn’t their last act.
Reprints issued in the 1960s got into the hands of people like Craig McDonald, an Ohio kid. Reading the exploits of The Shadow and Doc Savage led him directly to Hemingway, whose terse style is often linked to the pulps. McDonald went on to become a journalist and novelist. He’s published 24 books, and is best known for his mid-century historical fictions featuring fictional Black Mask writer Hector Lassiter, who rubs shoulders with the likes of Hemingway, Orson Welles, and Ian Fleming.
“Pulps are often looked down upon as being kind of lowbrow, not literature. But in my case they were a gateway to literature,” said McDonald. “So that’s where the love began.”
McDonald, who lives in Columbus is among the dealers at this year’s PulpFest. He’s also one of the panelists on the discussion “Bringing the Pulps to the 21st Century – The Writers.” He’ll also co-host a look at Hemingway and Hammett titled “Influence or Coincidence?”
Other PulpFest 50 attractions include the retrospective panel discussion “Fifty Years of PulpFest” and programs on Doc Savage, Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs, and famed Western illustrator Nick Eggenhoffer. There’s also a pulp-themed estate auction, and commemorations of the 90th anniversaries of both Dime Mystery and Dime Western magazines, both published by Popular Publications.
PulpFest is a ticketed event. A complete schedule is here.
